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Mark 4

1Again he began teaching beside the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him, so he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, while the whole crowd was on the land beside the sea. 2He taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said:

3“Listen! Look, the sower went out to sow. 4As he sowed, some seed fell beside the path, and the birds came and ate it. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up because the soil had no depth. 6When the sun rose, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered. 7Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 8Other seeds fell into good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded fruit: one thirtyfold, one sixtyfold, and one a hundredfold.” 9And he said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

10When he was alone, those around him with the Twelve asked him about the parables. 11He said to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything comes in parables, 12so that

‘looking, they may look and not see, and hearing, they may hear and not understand, lest they turn back and be forgiven.’”

13And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How, then, will you understand all the parables? 14The sower sows the word. 15These are the ones beside the path where the word is sown: when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them. 16Likewise, these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy, 17but they have no root in themselves and last only a little while. Then, when affliction or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they stumble. 18Others are the ones sown among thorns: these have heard the word, 19but the worries of the age, the deceitfulness of riches, and desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20And those sown on good soil are the ones who hear the word, receive it, and bear fruit: one thirtyfold, one sixtyfold, and one a hundredfold.”

21He said to them, “Does the lamp come to be put under a basket or under the bed? Is it not to be put on the lampstand? 22For nothing is hidden except to be revealed, nor has anything become concealed except to come into the open. 23If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be added to you. 25For whoever has will be given more; and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

26And he said, “The kingdom of God is like a person who scatters seed on the ground. 27He sleeps and rises, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows tall, though he does not know how. 28The earth bears fruit by itself: first the blade, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29When the crop is ready, immediately he sends in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

30And he said, “How shall we compare the kingdom of God, or in what parable shall we set it out? 31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on the earth. 32Yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all the garden plants and makes large branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.”

33With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately he explained everything to his own disciples.

35On that day, when evening came, he said to them, “Let us cross to the other side.” 36Leaving the crowd, they took him along just as he was in the boat; other boats were with him. 37A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. They woke him and said, “Teacher, does it not matter to you that we are perishing?” 39He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Be silent! Be muzzled!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41And they feared with a great fear and said to one another, “Who, then, is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Translation notes 6

1:25; 4:39 — “Be muzzled.” The Greek verb can mean muzzle or silence. The translation retains its forceful image; the command means “Be silent!” It does not describe fitting a physical muzzle.

4:11–12 — Parables and concealment. “Mystery” concerns something disclosed to the disciples. “So that” and “lest” preserve the difficult force of the quotation echoing Isaiah 6:9–10. Turning the sentence into “because they refuse to listen” would add an explanation that Mark does not give here.

4:17 — “Stumble.” Here the image concerns abandoning one's response to the word under pressure. The verb itself does not specify whether that abandonment is temporary or permanent.

4:21 — “Does the lamp come?” The lamp is grammatically the thing that comes. The ordinary sense is bringing a lamp into use, but the unusual wording is retained without insisting that it identifies a particular person.

4:31 — Mustard seed. The text makes a sweeping comparison with other seeds. It is not silently qualified with “that you plant” or rewritten as a botanical classification.

4:37–41 — Great storm, great calm, great fear. The same adjective links these three moments. “They feared with a great fear” retains the emphatic wording rather than replacing it with simple amazement.